Ever notice...?

Did you ever notice that when politicians talk about "austerity", they are almost always talking about less or restricted spending. E.G.: Johnson recently telling the Spectator that austerity "wasn't the way to go which meant his manifesto was crammed full of more spending of all types (except Defence, as usual) but precious little for tax relief. A promise in Boris' leadership to increase the threshold for the inheritance tax was junked at the Conference. Another promise from his Leadership race to increase the threshold for the top bracket seems to have slipped beneath the waves of the "Play it safe", "Anti-austerity" Manifesto. A promise to reduce the Corporate tax by a whopping two percentage points DOA at the Manifesto. Finally, an "accidentally" leaked promise to increase the threshold for National Insurance contributions to save 500 pounds evaporated to only an "ambition" to do so beyond 100. What was left over were a few targeted business rate cuts (sound familiar?).

The PM talks a good game about how post-Brexit, the UK will be unleashed like a "Lion from a cage". If these paltry piecemeals are any indication, that Lion will be declawed before he gets out of his cage. The UK needed desperately to become more competitive and productive (at least as much as say Ireland) before Brexit was a dream. It will need to do so all the more as an independent trading player again. 

What is infuriating is that no politician, media member or academic close at hand seems to understand that the real "austerity" is when taxpayers are paying a 20% VAT, a 45% top rate and 25% basic rate of income tax and countless other taxes and compliance costs so that the average UK business or individual is paying almost half of their pay packet or profits to government. Worse, this austerity poses a far greater harm to the UK economy and its capacity to survive and thrive in a post-Brexit globalized World. It is a precious littleconsolation for the benighted UK taxpayer that every other major industrialized nation (with the conspicuous exception of the US) is as bad or worse off and has elites who (hardly themselves in pain) also view "austerity" as when they cannot take more of your money to pay for their pet projects.